There are umpteen videos out there of portable fold-out two-wheelers that were created as concepts or made it to production but did not really catch on. Honda, though, has now unveiled a suitcase-sized electric version, called the Motocompacto. Essentially targeted at customers in urban areas, the Motocompacto can be folded to carry onto public transport or even fit inside the trunk of your car.
The Motocompacto isn’t designed for aesthetics. Despite this, the little scooter is a head turner. Who wouldn’t want to see the kind of suitcase you are riding? And that is what the Motocompacto really is. When fully collapsed, the scooter looks like a little box complete with handles to lug it around. But at 19 kg, it isn’t light either. All of the requirements of a scooter are tucked away neatly within this box, including the handlebar, the seat, foot pegs, the wheels and even a nifty little kickstand. In terms of pure dimensions, the scooter measures just 967 mm in length, 436 mm in width and 889 mm in height when completely unfolded. All closed up, the dimensions shrink down to 741 mm, 93.98 mm and 535 mm in length, width and height, respectively.
Powering the Motocompacto is a 490 watt motor that is capable of producing 16 Nm of peak torque. Power comes from a tiny 6.9 Ah battery pack. This, Honda says, is good enough to allow the scooter a total range of 19 km on a single charge and reach a top speed of 24 km/h. Charging the battery, however, is a rather long affair. There isn’t any kind of fast-charging capability, so on a 1.5 amp socket, the scooter can be charged from 0 to 100 percent in 3.5 hours.
The scooter isn’t very heavy on tech either. All you get is lighting at both ends and a horn for safety. The Motocompacto draws its inspiration from another old scooter called the Motocompo. Like the electric scooter today, the Motocompo was also designed to be folded and stuffed into the back of a car, a 1981 Honda City hatchback, to be specific. The old scooter, however, was powered by a 49cc two-stroke single-cylinder engine.
Now, as far as pricing goes, the Motocompacto retails at $995 in the US. This is approximately Rs 82,000 at the time of writing and a little too expensive for a market like India where there are several other options with better power and range even if they are ICE powered. That said, the compact size and minimal maintenance could be very beneficial for some buyers in the country.
